New Resolve

Sitting here this morning, I realized I'm getting claustrophobic again. Why is that? My house is a mess. I have been lazy, no point in denying it. The boys' toys have been accumulating again, along with the garbage they pick up and consider fun to play with. My Mommysavers paperwork (coupon train info, topic ideas, etc.) and a few stamped images for my card making has been piled on top of the printer and piles moved to the book case next to it. We even have over-due library books sitting here that I have been even too lazy to call and renew to keep from getting a fine. Not only is the house a mess, but I have been drying my clothes in the dryer instead of on the line. We have been driving everywhere instead of walking. I just feel like I'm a mess!

What I need to do is get back into a routine. I am going to deep clean this afternoon while the boys are napping and hopefully I can get back on track, figure out what in my life has changed that has kept me from my previous routine.

It's Friday. It would be so nice to get all the work done in the house so that we can relax all weekend.

Tomorrow the boys and I are going to Kearney to spend my $50 in gift cards. I have become so accustomed to shopping the ads, using my coupons and stockpiling that I have NO idea how to shop without an ad. Why doesn't walmart have an ad every week like every other store? So I am making this half-assed list and hoping I don't overspend by the time I get to the check out.

Here are some of the cards I did for the Mommysavers card crop this weekend. Some of the pics are blurry, some were scanned on my computer.

Garden Pictures! We have a small tiny tomato, about the size of a pea!

I finished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I loved it. Definitely one of my top favorites. I gained some new insight on my own views of religion and God. My favorite quote from the book was this:

"'What is that, Aunt Adah? And that?' their Pascal asks in his wide-eyed way, pointing through the aisles: a pink jar of cream for removing hair, a can of fragrance to spray on the carpet, stacks of lidded containers the same size as the jars we throw away each day.

'They're things a person doesn't really need.

''But Aunt Adah, how can there be so many kinds of things a person doesn't really need?'"

With all the bad weather, we thought we lost all 4 tomato plants, 3 flower plants and 2 bean plants. This morning 2 of the tomato plants seemed to have perked up, 2 of the flowers plants suddenly had flowers. They can be knocked around by golf ball sized hail, 70 mph wind and enough rain to make the water just sit around them and there they are. My garden is resilient. I am happy for that.

I have been reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a long book, a 3-decade long story and I'm not even close to half way through. This is the type of book I love. I can get to know the characters and be with them for a long time before they go away at the end of the book. The mother in this book tells one of her daughters that God doesn't make the bad things go away, but He does help us through them. I really liked that.

My simple living today consisted of hanging out laundry (I haven't used the dryer in 2 weeks), making bread and making potato salad and fried chicken for dinner.

I have finally mastered the wheat bread recipe. We've had some pretty dense bread with hard crusts this past couple weeks. I had read one website that said you didn't have to use bread machine yeast. So I just bought regular yeast. A book that Kevin's mom gave me said that if you use regular yeast, you need to use a little more and gave the measurements. Yesterday I finally made the perfect loaf of bread. We had hamburgers last night for supper, but we all had to have a slice of bread. I am going to start making two loaves and putting one in the freezer so that I'm not lugging the machine out every couple days. Next up...pizza dough!

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I got a load of laundry hung out. Today is supposed to be the only nice day and then rain ALL week. I wake up to CLOUDY and cool. I would like to be all caught up on laundry so I don't have to use the dryer so much next week. Since Kevin has redone the bathroom/laundryroom there is more room so I am going to buy a couple drying racks. This way I won't be using the dryer as often at all, even if it is raining or snowing.
The boys and I need to go to the post office this morning so I am counting on the clouds to go away. I can drive, but I don't want to.

We had a frost, hail damage and my tomatoes are looking good. We just lost one plant. The peppers, beans, onions and carrots all look great. My flowers are iffy. Kevin says they are fine, but they aren't filling out their pots as I wanted them to, yet. We are definitely looking into perennials. I want pretty spring flowers, not waiting for pretty flowers all spring.

We made national news. Not in a good way, but we were safe here. If you want to see videos and pictures you can do so here: http://www.nebraska.tv/default.asp . Now that there are no more storms coming our way, I am going to bed. It does look like my friends in Lincoln are getting hit right now, though, so I am praying for them!